Editorial: Senator right to call out CIA

Thursday

Mar 27, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 27, 2014 at 4:54 PM

Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., has her detractors, but she’s right this time.

And Americans need to pay attention.

Last week, Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, took to the Senate floor to publicly accuse the CIA of secretly poking around and lifting material from committee computers. If true, the allegations, which are now under Department of Justice review, means the CIA violated the Constitution and federal law against domestic spying.

Feinstein is no Edward Snowden, the now on the lam former National Security Agency analyst who dumped reams of sensitive documents into cyberspace with little regard for the consequences. In fact, Feinstein has drawn Snowden’s criticism in the past for defending controversial intelligence-gathering activities.

On intelligence matters, she has considerable credibility. That’s why her public allegations are a defining moment for whether Congress in the post-9/11 era can effectively oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies. If the CIA can circumvent the law and stonewall with impunity, heaven help the rest of us. Feinstein is right to push for the truth and CIA accountability.

Feinstein says CIA Director John Brennan conceded that the agency poked into the committee’s computers, but only to determine how Senate staffers received documents that he argued they weren’t authorized to have. Feinstein says that’s a cover story to a cover-up. According to her, the CIA removed from committee computers internal CIA reports that cast the agency’s post-9/11 interrogation tactics in a harsh and negative light. Brennan is pushing back. “As far as the allegations of CIA hacking into Senate computers — nothing could be further from the truth. We wouldn’t do that,” he says.

Either the agency did or it didn’t. Even in the spy world, this isn’t an ambiguous question.

The committee’s separate, voluminous report on the CIA’s post-9/11 “enhanced interrogation” program — the document at the center of this fight — remains out of public view. The CIA says the report is error-filled; Feinstein says the agency is stalling to avoid embarrassment and legal entanglements. Adding to the mess are news reports that the White House also has withheld secret documents related to the CIA detention program.

The CIA has the right to contest the committee’s report or work with Senate staffers to determine whether certain sensitive information should remain behind closed doors. It does not have the right to secretly meddle with the Oversight Committee’s work product, in effect trampling on the constitutional line between the executive and legislative branches. Congress cannot perform its constitutional duty of overseeing the executive branch when the CIA covertly thwarts investigations.

The administration should move quickly to declassify and release as much as possible of all reports related to the detention program. The public has a right to know, and the Senate has an obligation to do its job without executive branch interference.